|
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center Gear Research Team is collaborating with up to 30 commercial lobster vessels to test on-demand (also called ropeless) fishing gear in state and federal waters that are otherwise closed to lobster and Jonah crab fishing with static vertical lines.
Here are more details on the experimental fishery.
Participating vessels will fish trap trawls without any surface gear marks in the “potential on-demand testing areas” shown here.
 Avoiding Gear Conflict
The fixed gear involved in this research will not be visible at the surface since it has no surface buoys.
Our gear team and participating fishermen are particularly concerned about gear conflict this winter and spring in the potential on-demand testing area immediately west of the Great South Channel in former Groundfish Closed Area 1. On-demand gear in that area is set northwest to southeast in trawls approximately 1.5 nautical miles in length. The buoy marked end could be on either end.
If you do accidentally tow up an on-demand unit, do not discard it. Please hold onto the unit and reach out to the NEFSC Gear Research Team.
Vessels conducting this research during the Restricted Area seasons will be flying this gold flag:
 To visualize the gear positions and orientations of on-demand trawls, interested mariners can also download and subscribe to the EdgeTech Trap Tracker app (currently $24.99 + $14.99 subscription fee) on the Apple or Google Play app stores with any smartphone or tablet.
|
